Israel behind mystery attack on Syrian port – US sources

US officials have revealed that explosions reported at a key Syrian port on July 5 were likely the result of an Israeli airstrike.

Three officials spoke to CNN
on condition of anonymity, referring to the pre-dawn explosions
in the city of Latakia as an Israeli operation which allegedly
targeted Russian-made Yakhont anti-ship missiles.

The Yakhont is a cruise missile with a range of 300 kilometers,
capable of delivering a warhead weighing in at 250 kilograms.
Russia supplied Syria’s armed forces with a Yakhont missile
battery in 2011.

Shortly after the July 5 incident, the Britain-based Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that "huge
explosions shook the area where a large Syrian army base and
weapons depots are located."

According to reports by the SOHR published by Haaretz, fighter
jets were seen in the skies around the city of Al-Haffah, which
lies east of Latakia. Several troops were reported as having
been killed or wounded in the ensuing explosions.

Syrian rebels said on Tuesday that “foreign forces” had
destroyed advanced anti-ship missiles in Latakia, but only
hinted that Israel had been behind the attack, Arutz Sheva
reported.

Qassem Saadeddine, spokesman for the Free Syrian Army's Supreme
Military Council, reported that the rebels' intelligence
network had identified missiles being stored in the depots
which were hit.

"It was not the FSA that targeted this," Saadeddine told
Reuters. "It is not an attack that was carried out by
rebels. This attack was either by air raid or long-range
missiles fired from boats in the Mediterranean," he said.

Syrian rebels described hearing and seeing huge blasts, the
ferocity of which was beyond the firepower available to the
FSA.

So far the Israeli government has declined to confirm or
comment on allegations that it was behind the July 5 attack on
Latakia. If the claims are true, the attack would mark the
fourth Israeli strike on Syria within the past six months.

In May, Israel launched two airstrikes on Syrian territory. One
of the strikes was thought to be on the country’s Scientific
Studies and Research Center, which was previously attacked by
the Israeli Air Force in January. Another attack, which took
place on May 3, targeted Fateh-110 surface-to-surface missiles
provided by Iran and based at Damascus International
Airport.

"We have set red lines in regards to our own interests, and
we keep them. There is an attack here, an explosion there,
various versions - in any event, in the Middle East it is
usually we who are blamed for most," Israeli Defense
Minister Moshe Yaalon told reporters on Tuesday.

"There is an explosion here or an attack there, somewhere in
the Middle East, most of the time they accuse us," he
added.

Israel previously stated that the acquisition of sophisticated
weaponry by Hezbollah in Lebanon, which is supported by both
Syria and Iran, would represent a red line and merit a
response.

In all prior instances of strikes linked to Israel’s armed
forces, officials have not gone on record to take responsibility
for the incursions. At the same time, Tel Aviv has made clear
that the country is prepared to go into Syria if it means
preventing Hezbollah or other militant groups from obtaining
additional weaponry.

Israel considers advanced missile systems such as the Yakhont to
be a threat to vital infrastructure on the country's coast,
including gas reservoirs and a power station in Hadera, Haaretz
reported.

Gearoid O Colmain, an investigative author and journalist
believes that this latest attack by Israel was part of a long
Israeli strategy against Syria and that Syria has little choice
but to respond at some point.

“After the last attack in May President Assad said he would
respond strategically and I think what he means by that is that
with Hezbollah now in the picture in Syria, the Golan Heights
will become an area of tension and I think he has said as well
that they will provoke an uprising against the Israeli occupation
of the Golan Heights,” he told RT.